A Path to Deeper Awareness and Rest in God
As the day winds down and the sun sets, many of us seek a moment of reflection and peace. The Evening Examen, a time-honored practice rooted in Ignatian spirituality, offers a beautiful way to pause and review the day, opening our hearts to God. While often associated with the teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Examen can also be seen through the lens of Cistercian spirituality, offering a unique blend of mindfulness, humility, and surrender to God’s presence. In this post, we’ll explore the Evening Examen from both the Ignatian and Cistercian perspectives, inviting you to see how it can deepen your relationship with God.
The Ignatian Examen: A Method of Daily Discernment
St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, developed the Examen as a way for Christians to become more aware of God’s action in their daily lives. For Ignatius, the key to growing in holiness was discerning God’s presence and activity in the ordinary events of the day. The Examen is not about guilt or self-criticism, but about recognizing where God has been at work and where we have responded—or failed to respond— to His grace.
The Ignatian Examen is typically composed of five steps:
Gratitude: Begin by giving thanks to God for the gifts and blessings of the day. Recognizing God’s goodness is the foundation of the Examen.
Petition: Ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to see your day clearly and to recognize God’s presence within it.
Review: Look back over your day, noticing where you felt close to God, and where you felt distant. Where did you experience peace, joy, or love? Where were you anxious, angry, or distracted? This step is a key moment of discernment.
Forgiveness: Acknowledge the moments where you fell short, where you turned away from God’s call, and ask for His mercy.
Renewal: Look forward to tomorrow, asking for the grace to grow in faith and to respond to God’s love more fully.
The Ignatian Examen is an exercise in awareness. It sharpens our ability to discern God’s movements within our hearts, helping us become more attuned to His will and more grateful for His presence. Through this daily practice, we learn to see every moment as an opportunity to walk with God, to embrace His mercy, and to grow in holiness.
The Cistercian Perspective: Simplicity and Surrender
While the Ignatian Examen focuses on discernment and reflection, Cistercian spirituality, rooted in the monastic tradition, brings an emphasis on simplicity, silence, and surrender. Cistercians—who follow the Rule of St. Benedict with a contemplative heart—invite you to approach the Evening Examen as a more simplified, quieting process, allowing the soul to rest in God’s love at the close of the day.
From a Cistercian point of view, the Examen can be less about analysis and more about gentle awareness and surrender. Cistercian spirituality invites us to let go of our efforts to control or dissect every part of the day, instead trusting that God has been present in the small, ordinary moments as much as the big ones.
Our approach to the Evening Examen has four simple steps:
Recollection: Begin by stilling your heart and mind, entering into silence. This could be as simple as sitting in God’s presence, breathing deeply, and allowing yourself to settle into awareness of Him.
Awareness of God’s Presence: Instead of reviewing each moment of the day in detail, the focus is on simply acknowledging that God has been with you throughout the day, whether you were aware of it or not.
Surrender and Trust: In this step, offer the entire day to God—both the moments of grace and the moments of failure. Allow yourself to trust in God’s mercy without needing to over-analyze or fix what has gone wrong. Just recognize that you - as a human - are a small, finite creature that completely depends on God’s love and grace.
Peaceful Rest in God: Conclude with a quiet prayer of abandonment and trust. In the spirit of Cistercian simplicity, the Examen does not close with a plan or resolution for the next day, but with a resting in God’s will. As Cistercian monk Thomas Merton once wrote, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.” Similarly, the Cistercian heart does not stop to evaluate whether we have "done enough," but rests in God’s unconditional love.
Finding the Balance: A Harmony of Reflection and Rest
Both the Ignatian and Cistercian approaches to the Evening Examen offer profound spiritual gifts. The Ignatian method helps us sharpen our awareness of God’s action in our lives, deepening our ability to discern His will and recognize His grace. The Cistercian approach, on the other hand, emphasizes simplicity, trust, and the abandonment of self into God’s loving hands.
Combining these two approaches can create a harmonious balance: beginning the Examen with the gratitude and discernment of Ignatius, and ending it with the peaceful surrender of the Cistercian tradition. After reflecting on your day, offering it to God and acknowledging His presence in every moment, you can allow yourself to rest in His peace, trusting that His grace will carry you forward.
Conclusion: A Path to Deeper Union with God
The Evening Examen, whether viewed through an Ignatian or Cistercian lens, is a pathway to deepening our awareness of God’s presence in our daily lives. It is an invitation to slow down, reflect, and surrender ourselves to God’s mercy and love. As we journey through the day-to-day challenges of life, this practice can help us cultivate a sense of peace, gratitude, and trust in God’s providence. In the quiet moments of the Examen, we discover that God is always near, gently guiding us toward greater union with Him.
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